AndrewG:
AndieHyde:
The collective insanity of corperate business only ends up hurting the little guy.Youre not wrong there Andie. Many years ago i did some work for a French plastics company in
Montpellier (plastic granules). The accounts were being paid 6 weeks, two months going onto 3 months+, in the meantime i blew the engine up in my F12, rented another and had to find circa 6K eur for repairs (didnt last long btw). Plastics company meanwhile went bust. At the time i seriously thought about jacking it all in…
And hereby lies the problem.
The whole money-go-round is propped up by debt. When somebody at the top turns off the flow of money, the entire house of cards falls over and the little guy at the bottom ends up holding the smelly end of the stick.
So lets apply this thinking to the plight of our brothers at Suttons. On the one hand we have a well run company, paying its drivers well in return for providing a premium and essential service to its customer base. Obviously for a premium price, but you get what you pay for and most costs are fixed (diesel, road tax, insurance. I’m sure you know)
Big business knows this and for the most part, accepts Suttons charge as the cost of doing business and is to all tense an purpose, added into the cost of supply to their customers. Everybody is happy.
Now enter into the mix an organisation who see Suttons on to a good thing and think they can compete. The only real cost saving in this situation is drivers wages AND/OR borrowing a shed load of money you have no intention of ever paying back but the damage is done at this point. Suttons compatition is making cost cutting foot in the door tactics to make the end user think they are being ripped off and invite Suttons to match the prices on offer.
With all of the afformentioned costs being fixed, the only saving is payroll. This is the situation right here, right now.
Suttons decide not to compete, the other organisation wins the work only to find some months down the line that they had their sums wrong and go ■■■■ up hurting everyone.
Suttons decide to compete, putting downward pressure upon its employees until everyone leaves and seats are filled with the lowest common denominator which leads to a toxic chemical spill into a kitten sanctuary run by nuns and go out of business anyway.
Love her or hate her, Thatcher had it right with the statement “the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money” and the modern day legacy of that is government cannot help themselves but to bail out (with tax payers money of course) businesses that should otherwise fail. They claim that the market will correct itself, but continue to influence it with free money for “good” ideas.
Either way, Suttons are ■■■■■■■
All in the the name of COGS (current managment buzzword, Cost Of Goods Sold ) efficency.